True or false?

Mistress: I’ve been having a relationship with your husband. He says he does not like you any more..
Wife: Like? LIKE? We’ve been married nearly twenty years.

After twenty years nobody likes each other any more.

True or not?

WE’ve only been married 10 years. I suppose there were times we’ve both wondered why we got married in the first place, but let me tell you that I often wonder what I’d do without Dirk.

Like? Not always. Certainly not my subbornness or his nitpicking, my tendency to scatter things all over the place or his scurrying around. But there’s plenty to like too. Things like integrity, intelligence, loyalty and dependability.

How about you?

Given the fact that we live a mere 45 minutes drive from the closest beach, I feel ashamed to admit that the last time we were on the beach was in September last year. The Struisbaai holiday will always stand out in my mind as a period of relative contentment.

Strange that I often have cause to regret times that I have missed out on joy because of my tendency to either dwell on the past or worry about the future. Maybe it is in part my nature.

“Don’t worry” a complete stranger remarked as I sat with Loren sleeping in the pram next to me watching Dirk and Marco playing in the sand “This time next year your little one will be running around just like his older brother.” My expression must have reflected sadness or some sort of negative emotion for I’m pretty sure he was not aware of the fact that Loren had CP. As it turns out he was right. Loren must surely be running around now. But it was not quite what I had in mind….

And in being sad that particular moment, I somehow lost it irrevocably.

The past weekend we took the opportunity to turn it into a longer weekend and we went to our own KZN South Coast with its white beaches and friendly people.

We could go for long walks as the weather was good for this time of the year and Marco enjoyed it enormously. He caught a fish in his little net, played in the sand and acted with progressive self-confidence in the small waves.

I could feel my own heavy spirits lift as the wind blew my hair into my mouth and waves roared around me.

Loren was there with us in our thoughts. And when he wrote the children’s names in the sand, Dirk added his as a matter of course. As much a part of the other two as showing us the way to heaven.

A case of mistaken identity.

Farts are funny. Especially when you are not the guilty party.

Magnus has inherited the particular genetic trait to be able to fart at will. Loudly. I’m not going to point any fingers, but I’ll just say that he didn’t get it from my part of the family.

One day in last week, we were sitting in the bedroom. I was reading a story to Marco and Magnus was nursing. We were expecting Dirk home from work any minute.

Magnus emitted a fart so loud that all of us – including him – jumped. For a second I feared that he would be propelled into outer space with the force of it. Marco frowned at his brother in complete disbelief. Then the frown cleared and excitement replaced it. He jumped off the bed and ran to the door.

“Dad must be home!” he shouted.

PS. Sorry Dirk, but this was too funny not to share..

Yolande

Whenever we had to face medical treatment for Loren, I prayed for angels along the way. Yolande was one such angel. She worked for a paediatric surgeon who eventually did Loren’s Nissen (an operation to cure severe reflux).

Yolande allowed us to sit in the surgeon’s consulting room so that I could pump breastmilk for Loren and feed him. I suspect that she went without lunch that day even though she said she never eats lunch. She was highly pregnant at the time. Her little girl was due in a few weeks.

When we thanked her profusely, she let us know that she knew more or less what we were facing – having lost her little boy to cancer a few years ago and also facing days of complicated and painful treatments with him. I was speechless. Here I was with the warm body of my living child in my arms and I was feeling rather sorry for myself and she…

Yolande was not only our angel in need. She was also actively involved with support to other parents with kids with cancer.

We saw her again around this time last year – just popping in to let her know we were all well. She was as wonderful as ever – happy with her little girl. All well with them too.

Today I checked in with Nadine and read that Yolande’s little girl has also now been diagnosed with cancer. I have to echo Nadine: We don’t understand why. And really, there are no words.

Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Eight random things

I’ve been tagged by both Laura and Jodi to share eight random facts about myself:

1. If I had to choose a career for myself all over again, I’d choose to work with either animals or flowers.

2. I have a strong dislike for almost all shades of pink and have had it ever since I can remember. My favourite colours can differ from one moment to the next and are usually strong warm colours.
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3. I’m terrible at split second decisions. It is because I apparently don’t have strong brain hemisphere dominance. The positive side to this is that I am capable of both seeing the bigger picture as well as giving attention to details.

4. I would hesitate taking any job that dictates wearing a uniform. Even if I hate my clothes or am totally undecided about what to wear, I appreciate the freedom to choose.

5. I’m not particularly artistic, but I have to be creative, otherwise I’d be totally frustrated. I like things like knitting and sewing and crafts. I enjoy interior decorating. I play the piano and electric organ – albeit badly. I find gardening very therapeutic. And of course…blogging – which is the only thing I have really had time for lately.

6. My favourite pastime is daydreaming. I usually indulge in it while driving alone in my car. So, the people who’ve remarked that I’m either snobbish or “very focused “… you’d be scared witless if you knew how far removed my thoughts are from driving or recognising people or anything remotely to do with here and now. And, no, I’m not going to tell you what I’m daydreaming about….

7. The one thing I both hate and fear in life is being trapped in a corner without any options. I’ll literally claw my way out of that corner.

8. I can cook and bake and have decided that it is probably worth doing well since I’d be bored stiff if I don’t experiment and since we all like eating well. But I’m definitely not passionate about either.

I’m tagging embejo and Mel
The rules:
1. Let others know who tagged you.
2. Players start with 8 random facts about themselves.
3. Those who are tagged should post these rules and their 8 random facts.
4. Players should tag 8 other people and notify them they have been tagged.